Preschool piano worksheets are most easily created as interesting piano games that can be expressed on a single sheet of paper.

Here are ideas, in order of importance, that can be used as the basis for a piano game.

WORKSHEET 1

Find Middle C. Explain how you found it using the two black keys as a reference point. Play every C on the piano, using the two black keys as a reference points. See how fast you can play every C on the piano with no errors.

WORKSHEET 2

Play the first 5 notes C D E F G ( 1 2 3 4 5 in Piano By Number) with any finger you want. If you can find C, you can play the five keys to the right. A more advanced version might ask the child to extend all five fingers onto the five keys, one finger on each note.

WORKSHEET 3

Put your right thumb on number one, or Middle C, and then play 1 2 3 or C D E with the first three fingers, thumb, index, and third fingers. If this is too hard, let them use any finger they want , as long as they preserve the order of keys, 1 2 3.

WORKSHEET 4

Play every white key going up. Then play every white key going down. If you make a mistake, you have to start again.

WORKSHEET 5

Play every black key going up. Play every black key going down. If you make a mistake, you get to try again.

WORKSHEET 6

Play a simple song that has as few notes as possible. Use any finger you want. You can use any song you want as long as it has only white keys.

MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB

| 3 2 1 2 | 3 3 3 * | 2 2 2 * | 3 3 3 * |

| 3 2 1 2 | 3 3 3 3 | 2 2 3 2 | 1 * * * |

[piano]

WORKSHEET 7

Play #1 and then add #3 so that you are playing them at the same time. Explain that this is a "chord." Ask them to play any skip of white keys, ask them to find as many pairs as they can. For example, 1 and 3, or 4 and 6.

WORKSHEET 8

Ask them which way is UP on the piano. It is to your right. Ask them to run their fingers along the keys quickly over the entire length of the keyboard, going UP. This is called a "glissando."

WORKSHEET 9

Ask them which way is DOWN on the piano. It is to your left. Ask them to run their fingers along the keys quickly over the entire length of the keyboard, going DOWN. This is called a "glissando."

WORKSHEET 10

Play the keys 1 3 and 5. Ask if it is happy or sad. It is happy.

Play the keys 2 4 and 6. Ask if it is happy or sad. It is sad.

As you can see, the first steps are to allow the child to explore the piano as an abstraction, not as a response to symbols on a page. There is time enough to start reading music, once the child has developed a successful relationship with the keyboard and understands the above concepts.

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https://pianobynumber.com/blogs/readingroom/is-piano-learning-software-useful2020-03-29T15:50:00-04:002020-04-12T09:33:45-04:00Is Piano Learning Software Useful?john aschenbrenner
Piano learning software almost never benefits kids, only the manufacturer and the dealer. It is dreamed up by same sort of people that make up Standardized Tests. It's like asking me if I'd rather travel to my destination, or just pretend to travel in a computer mockup. If I'm actually trying to get somewhere, a computer simulation is of little use. It's the same with software. No piano software I've ever seen compares to the experience of sitting at a real keyboard and using one's mind to solve musical problems. Great for the school system, great for getting tax dollars, not so good for the kids.

Software Saves Schools Money

It is estimated that only 10% of the money spent on education is actually spent on the child. The rest goes to the school administrator's $250,000 a year salary. Then there's testing, useless building contracts awarded to the favored friends of the administrators, the contractors, and phony learning software. It all looks good on paper, but kids remain musically uneducated by this foolish system. Piano learning software sounds good to the inexperienced parent, but the inevitable result is boredom. Why? Piano learning software always results in boredom because the most you can do with it has already been built in. You follow the course, like a video game, but then where do you go?

Levels Are Meaningless

Once you get to "level ten" of the software, you'll find yourself no better prepared for a real piano than you were before you started the software. Of course, piano software is attractive to parents and kids addicted to computers and video devices. The software marketing will point out that you have no piano and no teacher, so where else will you go to try the piano? I'll tell you where: to the closest piano or inexpensive keyboard. The piano keyboard, unlike pre-arranged software, has no limitations, and a child can see that immediately. The freedom from limitations that comes from the 'blank" keyboard is both exhilarating and frightening.

In Piano, You Set The Level

In fact, it is this "blankness" of the real piano that is responsible for the piano being such an admirable teaching instrument: you can make it as easy or as difficult as you want. Of course, if you can, just go get a great piano teacher and a real piano. But you will soon find there are far more real pianos than good children's piano teachers. And without the right teacher, you are better off waiting until you can find one. The teacher is far more important than the instrument or method. You'll never convince me that a computer is a better piano teacher than a sympathetic human. Piano software has one inherent flaw, which is boredom. Ultimately, either the computer plays you, or you play the piano.

I'm against film music, at least most of it. There are exceptions, of course. Most of it is emotional manipulation to make a poor product seem better. I've been watching films for perhaps 50 years. I've watched two and three or four a day, sometimes more. In my capacity as composer, conductor, musician, arranger, orchestrator and publisher I've watched just about everything.

On the road, you end up sitting in a lot of hotel rooms with time on your hands and TV to watch. So I've seen a lot of movies. Like everyone else I've developed my preferences and opinions. I've also been a composer for films and theater. Thus I'm familiar with the function of music in the art-by-committee that is film and theater.

Music Is Just One Department

Music has a place, like every other element such as scenery, acting and script. What has begun to bother me with films is the general sense of phoniness. Specifically, the music, humming away in the background. The only thing on the mind of the film producer is the product and its box office. Music is simply one element of many that helps creates the product. The only objective is to make something they think can sell.

Music Supports Bad Acting

Thus, when a scene is weak, the first call is to the composer. "I need some funny music in scene 23A, the actors are not getting the comedy across." So some hack composer has to create clucking bassoons to accompany a lackluster scene. I have a lot of respect for film music when it's done right, as in Gladiator, music by Hans Zimmer, or Robin Hood music by Erich Korngold.

In the hands of the great masters of film composition, music blends with the film to become one. But even that belies a subtle psychological problem that lies beneath all film music.

Film Music Is Emotional Manipulation

The problem is that film music is inherently manipulative. In the extreme, it captures our natural musical emotions and hijacks them to enhance the picture. The viewer is always told what to feel by the music in a film. Only very rarely does the viewer get to witness the actors alone.

Watch Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason in The Hustler (Music by Kenyon Hopkins.) Notice that not one comic moment in that darkly ironic film was ever underscored by clucking bassoons and celli playing pizzicato. They allowed the viewer to discover the sardonic humor for themselves.

Film Content Is Usually Garbage

Most pictures, especially those made today, are not worth illuminating, with thousands upon thousands of car crashes and foolish "commercial" humor. There seems to be no place any more for films that have some self-respect. They have all become financial vehicles with actors and script attached. Sequels, remakes, homages, fakes. One might say that film producers do not know what music is, they only know what effect it has.

Is It Getting Better?

Viewers are hopefully becoming more attentive. But the Hollywood movie and TV people are telling you they think you are stupid. With every bar of cruddy underscore they can turn out, they insult your intelligence. They use it to cover the flaws in the film itself, and the worse the film is, the more music they use. If you think about it, film music is much like a canned laugh track in a sitcom.

It tells you how the producers would like you to react. The better they are at their job, the less room they will give your feelings. Film producers care only about manipulating the audience to get their dollars, and thus make films with quantifiable properties, like "heartwarming," or "pulse-pumping."

It's all junk. You'll have a better film experience if you take any random film, shut off the sound and played something else on your stereo. We all know what they're saying, anyway, just by the genre.

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https://pianobynumber.com/blogs/readingroom/visual-piano-games-and-exercises2020-03-21T10:07:00-04:002020-03-23T14:37:48-04:00Visual Piano Games and Exercisesjohn aschenbrennerVisual piano games and exercises get the child to pay attention to the keyboard. Put simply, a keyboard is a group of colored buttons within which the child must find patterns. Paying attention to anything is often a challenge for most kids, unless it is made into fun. Please don’t tell me you’ve ever seen a child indifferent to fun. Such a child does not exist.

Twos And Threes

The first visual game I play is to have a child become aware of the repeating pattern of two and three black keys. You would be surprised at the number of kids who are unaware of the black keys, and who do not use them to find their way at the piano, even after years of successful study.

So every once in a while, start pointing to the black key groups and ask, “Two or three?” Make a time limit for each answer, imitating the ticking clock, and the game show. If they don’t answer quickly, laugh, make a losing buzzer sound, call out the answer and move on. This teaches kids to think quickly.

White Key To The Left

An extension of the above game is to point to a group of two or three black keys and say, “Play the white key to the left” or "Play the white key to the right.” This extends their ability to make judgments with their eye, and then execute a task with their finger.

Play Every C and Every F

Go up the piano, pointing to the two black keys. Say, “Play a C.” They must find the first white key to the left of the group of two black keys. Do the same with F, the first white key to the left of any group of three black keys.

Follow The Leader

Play any group of three keys. In the style of Simple Simon, the child must imitate what you do. So if you play 3 2 1, the child does so right after you. Go very quickly from one to the next, barely pausing to get their answer and correct if they are wrong. This easily becomes a musical joke. Play 1 1 5 5 and ask what song it is (Twinkle, Twinkle.) You are now playing Name That Song! But what you are actually doing is getting the child to observe the keyboard, outside of the realm of reading music and even playing music. This game can be extended to very complex lengths with a motivated and intelligent child.

Mirrors

Play any simple group of keys. Say, 3 2 1. Then ask them to play it backwards, 1 2 3. This requires abstract positioning skills that younger children may have but in an unformed mode. Avoid anything that they cannot readily grasp, according to age group. When a child cannot grasp an idea, it is because you are not observing their comfort level closely enough. It is not because they do not have the ability to comprehend.

Piano Games Build Mental Skills

All of these visual piano games are useful in building mental skills that are used every moment of playing the piano. Piano games are explored outside of music reading. This requires a level playing field of gaming skills where the child understands all the simplified elements (up/down, left/right, etc.) Look at the motions necessary to play the piano. Isolate them and make visual games from them. Children at least are then given a preview of what will be expected.

Taking piano lessons in your own home has never been easier! Kids and parents are always more comfortable when they don't have to drive to the lesson. The lesson begins right on time at home!

My name is John Aschenbrenner and I provide professional piano lessons in the comfort of your home in the New Milford, Connecticut area. I'm currently a Piano Instructor at Kent School, in Kent CT. I've taught piano at many other schools, including the Marvelwood School in Kent. I am an Emmy Award winning composer and have been teaching kids and adults piano in the NY/CT area for 25 years.

Whether you are an adult starting piano lessons or a parent who wants to give a child the gift of music, you have come to the right place. If you have a desire to learn you can play the piano.

I use a fun method to get kids and adults started playing. I emphasize the entertaining elements of piano to interest and engage kids with the piano.

While I have had the complete classical conservatory experience, that doesn't mean I expect that of you in any way, especially kids.

It's in your interest to play meaningful music (to you), right away. It is possible for anyone to play music far more complex than what they can read on a page. My first goal is to get you started playing real songs on your first lesson.

Education: BA University of California, Berkeley. MA University of Southern California Film School, DIPLOMA Trinity College of Music, London.

Emmy Award winner, music direction. Broadway veteran. Recordings with American Symphony Orchestra released by Sterling Records.

Lesson Details: If you're a beginner, I want you to start playing right away. There's less emphasis on deciphering sheet music and more on the immediate physical sense of the keyboard. You have to enjoy playing by any means before you are inundated with the page. Reading music follows soon, but not before you can play music you like. If you're more advanced, I can help you with technical development, and begin to widen your musical senses.

Travel Equipment: I provide Books and Musical Literature. Students must have instrument, electronic or acoustic.

Specialties: I teach any style of music that you prefer. I also accept students with disabilities and special needs.

Call John Aschenbrenner 860-207-3228 or 914 257 6188 or email me using the contact form on this site.

I also teach anywhere in the world via webcam. Your first lesson is free!

Brain structure, age and kid's piano go hand in hand. Your child's experience of the piano is entwined with the development of their brain hemispheres. When the hemispheres are less connected, the child has difficulty. This connection is based on age. As a result, younger kids are at a tremendous disadvantage when reading music.

Most piano teachers do not take this brain development into account when they encounter a child having difficulty. They just assume the child is stupid or lazy. Given the difficulty of the piano, even trying to play is a victory.

Control Your ExpectationsPiano teachers and parents have to decide what their expectations are. Do you want virtuosi on their way to Carnegie Hall, or kids who love to play songs on the piano? If your child has extreme talent, it will be obvious to everyone.

But the statistical probabilities are daunting. Almost no children will become world-famous pianists, but, with the proper guidance, they can become enthusiastic hobbyists. More important than Carnegie Hall is your child's experience of the piano, and you should do everything to ensure that it is a positive one.

How The Piano Brain WorksLet's look at the human brain itself to see how kids perceive the piano. The left brain controls the right hand, and the left brain controls the right hand. Depending on your child's age, the connection between the two hemispheres will be more or less developed.

There is nothing you can do about a child's stage of brain development. It takes growth and time for this neural highway (corpus callosum) to grow. But the piano can help hasten this development process.

Get Brain Hemispheres To "Talk"Playing music forces the two sides of the brain to "talk" to each other. As a result, musicians have greater mental capabilities. In younger children, the lack of the development of this connection produces profound discomfort and stress, especially when they try to read music.

It is well known that the "corpus callosum" (the connection between the hemispheres) is up to 90% larger in trained musicians. The best strategy is to start the child early, and ignore early failures as their brains develop.

Talent Is Less ImportantSo it makes no difference if your child has historic musical talent. What you need to do is expose your child to the musical experience frequently, early and often, via piano lessons. Thus it makes no difference if they succeed, the brain is growing.

Let's not rob kids of a positive experience of the piano just because their brains haven't grown quickly enough. Consequently, the solution is to design a curriculum that suits their particular stage of brain development. You need to start seeing piano lessons from the child’s point of view.

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https://pianobynumber.com/blogs/readingroom/inflexible-piano-teachers2020-03-17T20:32:00-04:002020-03-21T12:05:30-04:00Inflexible Piano Teachersjohn aschenbrenner
99% of beginning piano teachers are inflexible, teaching the same rigid curriculum year after year. And year after year, 9 out of 10 kids reject this type of piano teaching, and quit, costing their parents millions of dollars. There are two types of inflexible teachers, the young and the old. They both go from page to page, but for different reasons.

The inflexible young piano teacher goes from page to page because they think that using a standard text from page to page constitutes a curriculum, and will be accepted by the child, allowing them to collect a fee.

The inflexible old piano teacher goes from page to page because they are lazy. It is easy for them, they've done it a million times, and there is always another six year old ready for piano lessons. Their fees are in no danger, though kids do quit frequently.

The Effect Of Rote DisciplineThe effect on the kids is devastating. They are marked as failures, and parents wonder about their intellectual capabilities. But it is not the children's fault that so many quit so soon. It is because of inflexible curriculum, and inflexible teachers. There is an entirely different breed of piano teacher, and I would call them "creative."

They know all the standard texts, use them when appropriate, but do not depend on a set curriculum. It is much more difficult for a piano teacher to sit in a room with a kid and ask, "What shall we play today," rather than say "Let's start on page 39, where we left off."

Discipline Is Not InspirationThe conventional piano teacher walks onto the battlefield without weapons, and then decides on a course of action. It might seem unwise but it is actually in the child's interest that the teacher displays flexibility. Inflexible piano teachers are often applauded for "high standards" and "teaching the basics." Their record is horrible. 90% failure is nothing of which to be proud.

Engage The Child Or Lose ThemFirst, music educators have to realize that reading music is not the right platform to start kids at the piano. Eventually, yes, but not right at the start. The first goal should be to somehow engage the child with the piano, and make music. Unless you make the kid like the piano, it's really over. The pedants call this "coddling" the child, call it "weakness" on the part of the teacher.

My response is to look at the child's face, and see what might be possible that day. If it is playing Mary Had A Little Lamb with the index finger, so be it. We'll build from there. Build from what the child offers you naturally.

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https://pianobynumber.com/blogs/readingroom/helping-children-have-fun-reading-music2020-03-17T15:37:00-04:002020-04-10T11:29:05-04:00Helping Children Have Fun Reading Musicjohn aschenbrenner
If helping your child read music and enjoy the piano is the goal, think carefully about the piano book. And choose the right piano teacher. Do you remember your childhood piano lessons, with all those uninteresting exercises? Exercises comprise the entire curriculum of famous book methods, such as Bastien, John Thompson, Alfred, and all the others.

We use all these books, but only after we have sparked a child’s enthusiasm. We get them to play songs that are familiar to them, right away, from the first second of their first lesson. The only real use I have for these old texts is to teach kids how to sight read. The music is so boring that it is laughable. But we keep reading music, a little bit at a time.

Lessons Should Have A Fun, Quick Start

Piano lessons have to get off to a fun, quick start, or half the battle is already lost. The truth is that Piano By Number seeks only one thing. We want children to get started being happy playing music. The alternative is for children to be mystified and frustrated by sheet music in their first piano lessons.

A Better Introduction To The Piano

There has to be a better way to introduce children to the piano than the conventional methods. Get your child started right away with a simple method that yields immediate results, and builds immediate enthusiasm. Piano By Number is temporary method, a starting platform that establishes a positive relationship between the child and the piano.

It's Like Algebra

Conventional piano methods are like teaching first graders algebra. Of course children hate it. It is incomprehensible. Children need to start with 2 plus 2 equals 4, and then move slowly towards the complexities of sheet music and algebra.

Piano By Number Is Like Phonics

Piano By Number is much like phonics for reading. How can you argue with a method that creates an immediate passion for the piano? Phonics is a way of demystifying symbols (letters) establishing the logic behind the symbols. This is exactly the same way that Piano By Number demystifies the piano. It’s very easy to get a child to understand the symbols of sheet music when they have already established a positive relationship with the instrument.

Child Psychology

The problem with sheet music methods is that they do not take into account the psychology of children. If you make a child feel like a failure at something, they are not going to be willing to keep trying to learn it. Piano lessons are no different. Piano By Number makes children feel like winners, right away. This is because it allows them to make music right away.

A child who can play even a simple familiar song with one finger at the piano is a far better candidate for further piano study. Children want to make music before we demand that they study sheet music. Children say “goo goo,” before “mama,” crawl before they walk, talk before they read. Let them play music before they read music. Let them add 2 plus 2 before they attempt algebra.

A Valuable Educational Tool

It is as valuable an educational tool as phonics is for reading. Conventional piano teachers deny children this tool, entirely out of ignorance, and the result is a 90% failure rate for conventional piano methods. If the method fails, the method is wrong. Piano By Number has a higher than 90% success rate.

If helping your children read music and enjoy the piano is the goal, think carefully about the piano book with which you start. And choosing the right piano teacher is crucial. Do you remember your childhood piano lessons, with all those uninteresting exercises?

Exercises comprise the entire curriculum of famous book methods, such as Bastien, John Thompson, Alfred, Faber and all the others. Go look in your piano bench where you keep the piano books from your childhood.

Time Honored MethodsFaber, Bastien, Alfred and John Thompson. We use all these books, but only after we have sparked a child’s enthusiasm. You must get them to play songs that are familiar to them, right away, from the first second of their first lesson. The only real use I have for these old texts is to teach kids how to sight read. The music is so boring that it is laughable. But we keep reading, a little bit at a time.

The Missing StepWe use the Piano By Number format before we ever attempt to introduce children to the daunting complexities of reading sheet music. Piano lessons have to get off to a fun, quick start. A slow start ensures a lost battle. The truth is that Piano By Number seeks only one thing: to get your children happily started playing piano.

It is far better to get started being happy playing simple music, rather than being mystified and frustrated by sheet music. The vast majority of our supporters are parents who have actually tried our method. They are wildly enthusiastic, because Piano By Number yields immediate results.

No Fun, No FutureThese lucky children love the piano and want to play music. Once they have started Piano By Number, they are ready to brave the difficulties of learning how to read sheet music. Starting Piano By Number assures a higher success rate with reading music later. We don’t want to eliminate sheet music. We just want children to get started playing piano with enthusiasm.

The Psychology Of ChildrenConventional piano methods are like teaching first graders algebra. Of course children hate it. It is incomprehensible, at least to their developing brains. Children need to start with 2 plus 2 equals 4, and then move slowly towards the complexities of sheet music and algebra.

Piano By Number is exactly like 2 plus 2 equals 4. It is baby simple, and children understand it from the first second they see it. Later, they move on to more complex languages. Piano By Number is much like phonics for reading.

Start At The Child's SpeedNumbers are a language that any child already understands. A kindergarten child understands counting, and already embraces it as a learning process that brings them success and praise from adults. The problem with sheet music methods is that they do not take into account the psychology of children: if you make a child feel like a failure at something, they are not going to be willing to keep trying to learn it.

Piano lessons are no different. Children say “goo goo,” before “mama,” crawl before they walk, talk before they read. Let them play music before they read music. Let them add 2 plus 2 before they attempt algebra. Piano By Number is as valuable an educational tool as phonics is for reading.

"How come my kid hates piano? My child has taken piano for two years, and now wants to quit piano, what do I do?" I often get this question from parents. If that's your question, I can tell you several things about yourself.

The Swami's Observations

First, your child's piano teacher is a disciplinarian and devotee of piano pedagogy. They have a method and they stick to it, no matter who the child is. Second, your child is not a quitter. How could they have survived this torture for two years and not be a persistent worker, trying to deliver the goods?

Third, you're not a clairvoyant, but you do know your child. If their pleas to quit seem genuine, you need to listen to them. In fact, the tell-tale signs of quitting are there all along.

For example, I can tell you three things about your child quitting piano that I couldn't possibly know unless I am clairvoyant or completely correct in my assertions. Here are three observations about how a child hates and then quits piano. See if I'm not right.

The Honeymoon

First, I can say without fear of contradiction that there was a period at the beginning of your child's piano study when they were infatuated with it. I call this the "honeymoon." During this initial time, it is not difficult for a clever teacher to interest a child in the rudiments of piano.

Unfortunately, the teacher's only tool is repetition, which deadens the child to the instrument if done incorrectly. Repetition must always be made into a game. Thus, second, you noticed your child suddenly became uninterested in the piano. They did not want to play any more.

This is because they were asked to simply repeat boring pieces. This "music" had no actual musical substance. Each piece was like the last. Dull.

The Problem Appears

All discussions of deferred gratification aside, you now have a problem on your hands. You ask the teacher. What could they possibly say, except, "The child must pay attention and practice more." In real world terms, the piano teacher is saying, "Don't let this child be themselves during lessons because I'm not prepared for children's temperaments and variable personalities. And since I'm out of ideas, make them repeat my boring system that fails 90% of the time. I learned this old-fashioned way and I have no idea how to help your individual child enjoy the piano and music in general."

You Begin Nagging

And, third, the Swami can tell you that there was period toward the end where you nagged your child to practice, and the child shut down all interest in the instrument. This is the point at which, unknown to you, the child began to hate the piano. From the child's point of view, the piano was making you so angry.

The child could not express anger at you for nagging, so they began to hate the piano. The end result is that the child feels like a failure, and a quitter. But there was really no need for this negative result. The child could be fooling around on the piano right now, expressing their interest in their own away.

The Teacher's Mistake

What really happened was that the teacher deemed the child a failure. They did this in order to call themselves a success. In this teacher's mind, the child is a lazy quitter, and their perfect method is blameless. Think about it for a moment and you will see this is all that could possibly be true. It's not as if you had said to the teacher, "Make my kid get to Carnegie Hall or else."

As soon as you brand a child, in any way, a failure, they will have no more interest in the subject. That is simply human child nature, to be shy of failure.

Go Ahead, Ignore Child Psychology

This ancient system of music education completely ignores children who possess humble gifts but also great interest.

Is not the piano for these kids, too? Such is the fascination with the piano that generation after generation says, "Teach me to play piano."

Go slowly enough, and you shall.

The Real Answer

The real answer to this child's problem was a patient piano teacher, a teacher wise enough to measure the child's interest and teach him appropriately. Children have widely differing personalities and interests, and unless you take these into account, you serve the child a "one-size-fits-all" piano method. This method, even statistically and historically, is bound to fail.

What works is finding music the child is truly interested in, and which will make them feel proud to have mastered. It has to be something familiar, something they can show to their friends and announce, "I can play piano."

Giving such a kid dull "exercise" pieces to shove your "method" down the child's throat will eventually produce apathy and rebellion. But that is exactly what most old-school piano teachers do.

You can substitute titles in this package, so choose any 10 books you like!

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https://pianobynumber.com/blogs/readingroom/why-delay-reading-music2020-03-08T15:51:00-04:002020-04-10T11:06:13-04:00Why Delay Reading Music?john aschenbrenner
Why delay reading music? To allow the child to get used to the piano without the burden of reading music at the same time. It’s like asking, “Why delay learning algebra?" for your three year old. You delay learning algebra until the child has other mathematical skills already in place, upon which algebra is based.

Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division precede algebraic concepts. Reading even the simplest of musical notation requires several mental skills that your child, depending on their age, may or may not have in place.

Piano Intellectual Skills And Riddles

1. You must have a firm grasp on the abstract idea (and execution) of left and right, including left and right hands. 2. You must be able to order symbols and events, sometimes horizontally (sequentially) and sometimes vertically (simultaneously.)

3. You must understand more than a dozen types of symbols, many only slightly different from one another. This must be memorized. There's no "help" page.

4. You must look at a page of symbols and make countless decisions about them. Are they different, are they the same? Are they going up, are they going down? I need the answer right now.

Add to this the necessity of using a particular finger on a certain note. Fingers are also named and numbered, and you have to remember that. Add to this the need to name the notes you play. There is a musical alphabet (A through G) that starts on the letter C, to add to the confusion!

Add More Skills On Top And Then Still More

The above list is only the right hand, and is hardly an exhaustive list. Essentially, I don’t want to scare you, as a new teacher or parent, before you even begin. Hopefully, you can see the folly of starting piano lessons assuming that the child will be able to negotiate all the above skills on the list, right away. Most kids lose heart and hope that they can ever do it, much less have fun with it. Since the list is so long, the conventional teacher begins right away drilling. They drill the material into their young charge’s brains. Some survive this, a very few. Of those few, almost none enjoy it. And why should they?

Let Kids Play The Real Game

It’s like playing baseball with a pretend ball. You can go through all the motions and it will never be as exciting as the real game. What is the real game? Making music, however crudely, however childishly. The mistake teachers make is to fail to distinguish between making music and reading music. They are not the same, not by a long shot.

To read music is not necessarily to make it. Making music is a joyous, wordless, rather inexplicably spiritual pursuit. Reading music is the province of the librarian. Being a pianist is more like being an actor who interprets a script. How can you get your child to start playing music at the piano?

Choose Songs They Know And Love

First, choose simple songs that they know. Unless the song is recognizable to the child, it is useless as a teaching tool to generate enthusiasm. Next, let them play as many familiar songs as possible, using whatever instinctive fingering they choose. Don’t bother them with fingering before they have decided that piano is fun and they want to do it. Exploring rhythm as an entirely separate issue. You can try exploring rhythm in a song they know, such as Jingle Bells.

Have them sing the song with the correct spaces, and then have them try it at the piano. Don’t labor over this issue. There is so much to learn before you get to rhythm. A pianist is required to handle up to eight times the information that a flutist or cellist must. A pianist must learn to be an information manager more than any other instrumentalist. When your child is fired up about the piano, and can play many songs by ear and number, they are a more likely candidate for reading music. They may be more likely to continue, and take a more serious interest in the piano and music in general.

Second inversionchordsare the third chord position that students learn, since most methods restrict chord study to triads (three note chords) first. You must first fully understand both “root position” chords and “first inversion” chords before you attempt to understand second inversions. Inversions are based on a full knowledge of root position. Read the tutorial onROOT POSITION CHORDSand thenFIRST INVERSION CHORDS.

Review First Inversion

Let’s review the first inversion chord, since in principle it is constructed in the same way as a second inversion chord. Remember in the root position chord, the name of the chord was always the bottom note (the key furthest to your left.) So if you played a C chord, the lowest key of that chord in ROOT POSITION is always C.

Here’s a C chord in root position:

G (top)E (middle)C (bottom)

The C is on the bottom, the E is in the middle, and the G is on the top.

Now take that bottom note C, and put it on the top of the pile:CGE

Now you have a “first inversion” of the C chord, in which the bottom note is no longer the root of the chord ( C ) but has been changed to E. The chord is still a C chord, except that it is now a different “flavor” of C. The flavor is “first inversion.”

Now take that same chord and do the same process again. Here’s the first inversion chord we left off with above:CGE

Now take that bottom note E, and put it on the top of the pile:E (top)C (middle)G (bottom)

Now you have a “second inversion” of a C chord, in which the bottom note is no longer the root of the chord ( C ) but has been changed to G. The chord is still a C chord, except that it is now a different “flavor” of C. The flavor is “second inversion.”

Examples of Second Inversion Chords

Learn these second inversion chords. If you played the three keys at the same time on a real keyboard, that is the sound of the chord:

F Major = 1 4 6

G major = 2 5 7

[piano]

The principle is universally the same with all 12 chords. To make a “second inversion” of a chord, take the bottom note of a “first inversion” chord and move it to the top. Do this with the basic chords C F G D E and A. Don’t go further until you fully understand the idea and can play C F G D E and A chords in root position, first inversion and second inversion.

Think of inversions of chords as groups of Legos, in which you can endlessly rearrange the order of the same three Lego blocks. For beginners, there are only three possible positions for notes within chords: bottom, middle and top.

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https://pianobynumber.com/blogs/readingroom/ryan-seacrests-piano-concerto-22020-02-29T15:52:00-05:002020-03-31T10:58:17-04:00Ryan Seacrest's Piano Concerto #2john aschenbrenner
Ryan Seacrest's Piano Concerto #2 was the newest entry in the celebrity classical music sweepstakes underway with the San Francisco Symphony. I had the pleasure to be at Davies Auditorium last night. It has now been renamed The Ty-D-Bol Culture Forum, for the premiere of Ryan Seacrest's brilliant new Piano Concerto #2. It was fake-played with fervid passion by fake celebrity pianist Ashton Kutcher. The San Francisco Symphony, now renamed the Procter and Gamble Fine Family of Products Orchestra, was in excellent form. The venerable Justin Bieber took the helm. You may recall that the symphony was only recently renamed when the new corporate sponsors stepped in to save the orchestra. This was after a much-publicized strike by the rebellious musicians. Seacrest was highly visible in his private box seat, jauntily attired in a lime-green tuxedo ensemble. He acted as a rather haughty, pompadoured escort to the lovely Ivanka Trump. Ivanka was stunning as always, in a gold, flame retardant suit by Enrico Ferrogone topped off with a florid ostrich feather hat. Her hat, according to many bystanders, was in danger of stealing the show. Many said her hat blocked the view of more than a dozen disgustingly wealthy spectators. A hush fell over the auditorium as the lights dimmed and Kutcher took the stage. He was dressed in a dusty old-time cowboy outfit that looked perfectly sized for a Quentin Tarrentino epic. Kutcher did not, of course, actually play the piano part. That was left to a diminutive North Korean slave named Kim Dong Foo. The new manner, apparently, is to have a celebrity on the bill as soloist to draw the crowd. The star pays a sweatshop no-name to play the actual solo concerto part. Ashton sat quietly by the piano in a plush blue armchair, smoking a pipe during the entire spectacle. The audience, of course, loved it and many recorded it on their pink iphones. Bieber, the conductor of the Ty-D-Bol Orchestra, looked a little shaky at first in his dress slacks and no shirt or top whatsoever. He mounted the podium and looked curiously at the conductor's musical score. He then disdainfully discarded it, joining Kutcher in the loge seating at the edge of the stage. They began smoking a large cigarette, which he generously shared with Kutcher and several members of the audience. I could not hear the opening bars of the concerto, a dimly lit viola solo, because of the giggling and cackling of the two stars downstage. Luckily forty-four highly trained trombones soon made their entrance and drowned out the tepid violas. And I must confess that I heard little more of the fabled concerto, for the entire house was agog when Beyonce made a late entrance with her pet monkey April. She proceeded to noisily spread a picnic blanket at the edge of the stage with her forty-seven bewigged sycophants. But the ovation was immense when the end came and Kutcher jumped up to take credit for the perfomance. He crowded the crestfallen Kim Dong Foo from the stage. The audience, reared on MTV, Yoo Hoo and Doritos, knew what it liked, and it wanted more Seacrest. So the proud author came to the stage and had the hapless Kim Dong Foo play one of his sacred Hollywood Preludes on the piano. Unfortunately I could not hear as Bieber got into a nasty altercation with Beyonce's pet monkey and all the rest was a blur of ostrich feathers. I can say that culture is safe for the masses for centuries to come in the New America, now that Eric Trump has been made Minister of Kultur by President Trump. Oh, and they played a piece by some guy named Beethoven, whoever that is.]]>
https://pianobynumber.com/blogs/readingroom/what-the-piano-means-to-your-child2020-02-28T09:01:00-05:002020-03-21T14:09:13-04:00What The Piano Means To Your Childjohn aschenbrenner
What the piano means to your child is a very individual thing, made of gossamer and dreams. The piano is not just a piece of furniture. The piano is either a fun object, or a dreaded device, depending on the experience a child has with their teacher. Almost every piano teacher is convinced they are here on this earth to teach children to read music, and nothing else. To do anything differently, they surmise, would be bad for the child, and would be a dereliction of their professional duties. 90% of the children taught piano this way will resist, rebel and then quit. They will never look at a piano again with anything but revulsion.

The Old Method Produces Failure

These industry statistics doom the average child to failure even before they begin trying the piano. This is especially true if they are taught by these arcane methods based only on reading music. Even the simplest movements at the piano are excruciatingly difficult for most kids. This is because their brains are not yet fully developed. Thus they have little problem solving ability outside of generic math problems.

The Teacher Makes The Difference

The piano, when taught properly, is a tremendous mental proving ground for children, but it must not appear that way to the child. It's the piano teacher's job to make the process of solving problems, physical and mental, as easy and as enjoyable as possible. Have you ever seen a child with a puzzle? They don't want to put it down. The piano is easy to make into such a puzzle-like device, if you are willing to listen to the child and their needs.

What A Child Needs From Piano

Here are some of the needs of a child within a piano lesson: Children need to feel happy and secure, not judged and evaluated. Enjoying judgment and evaluation requires maturity in excess of what children possess. Children need an atmosphere of collegial exploration. You may think you're in charge, but if you have any horse sense you'll let the child think they are in charge. Children are over-managed these days. Let them blow off steam if required. Encourage it.

Concentrate On The Song

Don't focus on the child and their performance. Center the lesson on The Song, that desired object they wish to possess and play. Focus on The Song and the child will perceive your efforts as helping them get what they want. Don't focus on the abstractions of reading music. Teach them a song they know and love, and you will have you have given them something. If you only show them how to read music, you have enlightened them on a subject that has absolutely no childish interest for them.

Teachers Shouldn't Be Too Serious

Don't be serious. When I look at my students during a lesson, I almost always see a beaming face. It's as if the child is thinking, "You know, I've had a hard day at school, and I'm a little tired, but this guy is so friendly and funny that I think I can enjoy trying to make music for a few minutes. It's really kinda fun." Here's an example. I teach a nine year-old, headstrong girl who never practiced at first, mostly because she is so smart that she gets things the first or second time. She started having fun because I was so relentless in my positive approach. I didn't care if she didn't practice, and focused on getting as much done in the lessons as possible. She learned dozens of songs that she chose for herself, and became instinctively correct in her fingering. Her natural intelligence led her at her own pace to start playing the songs she liked.

Piano Becomes A Social Tool

But here's what her Mom said to me, that will tell you what the piano now means to that little girl who began piano lessons so indifferently: "Last week she had friends over and she sat with them and they all 'jammed' at the piano. She showed her friends how to play parts so they could all play pop songs together. They played at it for an hour. And she does that with all her friends. She wants to share how much fun the piano is to her now." Given a diet of patience, the piano now means expressive, musical fun to this child. How easily it could have meant drudgery.

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https://pianobynumber.com/blogs/readingroom/shame-based-piano-teaching2020-02-28T08:30:00-05:002020-03-21T12:03:42-04:00Shame Based Piano Teachingjohn aschenbrenner
When a piano teacher's only tool is to make the child feel ashamed for not learning, I call it "shame based piano teaching." Do any of the following statements sound familiar? "Why didn't you practice?" "But your mom is paying for lessons." "Other kids get it faster than you." Anyone who applies these policies to children should try working in a gas station, for you may be more suited to that line of work. No child I have ever met anywhere responded to guilt with anything other than shame. Do you honestly think such statements will make the child work? When does shame equal a motivation to work? Only when there is fear involved.

Kids Practice If They Like The Song

The only reason a child "practices," or at least repeats a song a few times, is that they like the song, and get pleasure from playing it. If children "practice" the piano for any reason other than pleasure, you're creating a robot. Robot behavior is for committed cadets, who know what they are in for with repetitious practice. Until you set up the basic piano lesson transaction as "play the piano, have some fun," you will never get anywhere with any child at the piano. That is the "dues" the piano teacher must pay to gain access to the child's mind. A mind filled with fear and guilt will not absorb the magic of music.

Shame Is For Professionals

Shame based teaching works well with professional musical artists in competitive conservatory or professional situations, not with six year-olds. Professionals are used to such manipulation. Children are defenseless against it. Lastly, if the child does not practice, and you still wish to open the doors of music to that child, you have two choices: Get them to play and practice at the lesson under your benevolent eye so that the child gets the idea that they should go have fun on their own with the piano. If you don't show them how to have fun in the lesson, they will be lost the instant you leave the room. Give them fun tools, bits of songs, passages, riffs, anything that gets them to want to play the piano. Never refer to whether they have practiced or not. In all likelihood, they haven't. Expect that they haven't practiced, and never get mad. Then you at least have a jumping off place to try to launch them next time. Never give up. Never show disappointment. Everything is "par for the course."

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https://pianobynumber.com/blogs/readingroom/i-want-to-learn-that-song-that-goes2020-02-26T08:48:00-05:002020-03-22T10:46:46-04:00I Want To Learn That Song That Goes....john aschenbrenner
When a kid says, "I want to learn that song that goes..." and then hums some melody, it has to be a moment of triumph for the intelligent piano teacher. It signals that a child has taken the piano on as their own, and are ready to explore music that they like. Once a child makes this move, you should stand out of the way. Throw more fuel on the fire by finding every song in the child's head, and figuring out ways to arrange it so the child can play a bit of it. Every film, cartoon, nursery rhyme, TV show and computer game tune is eligible. Think of all the songs running around in your head, and then find what's going on in the child's.

Difference Between Work And Play

The opposite of this situation is when a child is bored with the piano, and doesn't care about any of it. The songs bore them, the piano bores them, even you, the teacher, are supremely boring to them. But find that favorite song, and all of a sudden you are a much-needed partner in the search for a song. When a child crosses that barrier from "work" to "play" you will find the most fertile ground for teaching.

Like Kids Playing Together

Think about it. A child's experience of education is largely force-fed. When child plays with friends or by themselves, their entire imagination, inspiration and intelligence is stimulated. It is this same "play" state that we seek to awaken in the child's experience of the piano. Without this sense of play, piano lessons are exactly what kids claim they are. Drudgery. Don't expect enthusiasm for drudgery from a child.

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https://pianobynumber.com/blogs/readingroom/teachers-dont-want-you-to-shop-around2020-02-24T11:36:00-05:002020-03-21T12:04:44-04:00Teachers Don't Want You To Shop Aroundjohn aschenbrenner
What piano teachers don't want you to do is to shop around. Teaching piano is a very specific skill, and finding the right teacher is difficult at best. But from your point of view, you want as many choices as possible to find the piano teacher who fits your child. When first shopping for a piano teacher, most parents are beginners. They tend to fall for a few sales tricks that piano teachers use. For example, many piano teachers insist that you sign up for a certain period. The stated reason for this is that it takes time to produce results, and the teacher needs that time. The real reason is the teacher wants the assurance of income from you. However, a lengthy agreement, or any agreement at all, is not in the parent's interests. Until you have actually had your child experience a half hour with this person, it is all a mystery. You should agree to nothing.

Does The Child Like The Teacher?

You need to see your child's reaction to the lessons before you commit any further. If your child loves it, perhaps you have found a winner in your new piano teacher. But if you or your child is uncomfortable in any way, you should look closely at the reasons. Almost all piano teachers, unless they specialize in young kids, are dogmatists. They teach the way they were taught, and expect the same from their students.

Beware The Disciplinarian

They're perfectly at home with the concept of your child failing their method, for many do. They teach this way because it is easier for them. It is easy going from one page to the next in a text, rather than stimulating the individual child's imagination. Ask your neighbors and friends at the PTA about their experience with piano lessons. It's almost universally bad news.

Find A Teacher Who Understands Kids

There are creative teachers out there. To some enlightened musicians there is nothing drearier than a half hour watching little Freddy misunderstanding the minutiae of musical notation. So they invent ways to get the child to play at their own speed, at their own rate. These are the teachers you will need to seek out for your child.

Narrow The Field

Below is a sample process for finding a teacher. Find five local piano teachers. Arrange for a single lesson with each of them. If they refuse to audition for you, discard them and choose another more reasonable person. You don't have to tell them you are auditioning. Just schedule a lesson. Then go to each of the five lessons, scheduled once a week. Observe and find out how your child likes it. By exposing the child to five different methods and manners, you will find someone to whom the child responds. That is the teacher you should try. Children, as we all know, are excellent barometers of people. Your child can sense whether or not a person is sympathetic in about 2 seconds. I'm not saying you should let the child be the only judge of teachers. But their feelings are about 99% of your recipe for success. Try their choice. If it doesn't work out, move on. If you sign up with that teacher, here are further things to watch out for.

Burn Out

Even the best piano teachers have huge amounts of material they have to teach. Thus they are often in a hurry. Find someone with the most relaxed possible approach towards everything from fingering to practicing. I don't mean to select someone with no musical skills. Select someone with both musical skill and a knowledge of children, human nature and coaching. A pedant is not what you want, no matter how great their reputation. You want a common sense coach who will start your child on a life-long, individualized experience with the piano, according to the child's current abilities.

Scheduling

Don't take a lesson time that makes you stressed. Don't choose a day you have to travel far, or a very busy day. Better to find a teacher who can come to your home or has a more flexible schedule. What piano teachers don't want you to know is that you always have the choice of a better teacher. If you know what you're looking for, you may find one more suited to your child. You just have to find them. The problem is finding that teacher, a difficult task in remote areas and even some urban ones. No piano teacher is better than the wrong one.

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https://pianobynumber.com/blogs/readingroom/children-compose-with-piano-by-number2020-02-23T11:48:00-05:002020-03-21T14:04:31-04:00Children Compose with Piano by Numberjohn aschenbrenner
One of the most rewarding aspects of using Piano by Number is that children compose their own original music using the number system. By my own estimate, one out of four children will compose their own music when they begin playing with Piano by Number. The reason for this is that children are comfortable with numbers. Thus they are moved to try to compose their own music. This may be because the piano has a very user-friendly design. All the notes are laid out in front of you, with convenient black and white buttons.

Applaud Every Effort

I work with them as with real adult composers, discussing variations and concept, title, and all the aspects that a real composing student would experience. And there are amazing kids out there. Not all that they write is nonsense.

Meet The Geniuses

I have several 15 year old composers, children who are so taken with writing their own piano music that we study their music and not other composers unless they are interested. Almost all of them resist reading music. I have noticed that child composers reject the drudgery and want to get to the heart of the the music right away. Numbers are the quickest way to express themselves. I have a 12 year old girl who can barely read music. She composed a piano concerto, yes, a real concerto type of piece. It is highly dramatic, full of roiling arpeggios and all the bombastic tricks of the classic period. I doubt she has ever heard a real concerto. You would never guess that this piece was by a 12 year old, for it is real music. She is on her 20th song now. She works on composing in between soccer and baseball practices. I have a five year old autistic boy who hates to read music even though he reads quite well. His passion is patterns and numbers. He composes occasionally, and his latest work is a real Broadway tune. It's only four bars long, but it has all the earmarks of musical genius. I say four great bars is a great accomplishment for a five year-old, autistic or not.

Encourage All Their Music

I have countless normal, everyday kids who come up to me and say, "I wrote this song." We turn to a page in their note book, and there is their attempt at a song. Usually there are moments of lucidity where it DOES sound like music, but in general it is random. The point is to encourage this activity, for several reasons. First, it is a huge raise in self esteem for a child to write something and have it be appreciated. Second, writing voluntarily demonstrates that the musical process has penetrated their consciousness far enough that they pour themselves into it.

It's Easy To Compose On A Piano

It's not important how clever the piece is. But those kids that really write something remarkable will never hear the end of it from me. It is magical to hear a child write their own music. It is the nature of the piano, and the ease of the number system, that prompts them to do this. The piano itself almost asks you to make something up. Numbers makes it possible for the child to write it down easily, completing the act of composition.

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https://pianobynumber.com/blogs/readingroom/franz-schubert-the-first-bohemian2020-02-22T08:52:00-05:002020-03-31T09:36:44-04:00Franz Schubert, the First Bohemianjohn aschenbrenner
Franz Schubert's immense outpouring of songs, sonatas, symphonies and chamber works netted him only about $12,500 (current dollars) during his lifetime. Many composers had no way of capitalizing on their talents. "Music publishing" was only first coming into being. Schubert simply gave away the rights to his great works, often for a meal, a few dollars, a room for a few nights.

Beethoven Was A Rich Man

By contrast, Beethoven was an excellent businessman, and negotiated his own lucrative publishing contracts with all the major publishers of Europe. Beethoven was one of the first composers to make a success out of music publishing, and had amassed a small fortune. Schubert may have been the worst businessman of any of the great composers, and perhaps the first Bohemian artist. He once traded a symphony to pay his bill at the local bakery. That is the source of the famous story about him selling a piano sonata for a cream puff.

Schubert Was A Bohemian

Schwammerl, (Tubby) preferred coffee and hot chocolate and hot rolls, and lots of wine. He had a private booth at the local pub and wrote the theme to one of his string quartets on the back of a restaurant tab. Schubert never owned a piano, never rented one, and didn't need one to compose. Schubert didn't even have an apartment, so where would he put a piano, anyway? He could compose anywhere.

Schubert's Friends Supported Him

Schubert told a friend, "The state should support me. I have come into the world for no purpose but to compose." But it was Schubert's many friends, many of them aristocrats, who, recognizing his genius, gave him their homes as their own. Schubert repaid his aristocratic friends with a constant stream of masterpieces. Schubert once met Beethoven and showed him several manuscripts with trembling hand. The aging, gruff master Beethoven is said to have softened and remarked, "Truly, he has the divine fire." Schubert was perhaps one of the first hippies or socialists, and was in no way a member of the establishment. It was Viennese society who sought him out, but he returned their affection with indifference, so absorbed was he in composing.

Schubert was very short

Schubert's Youth Movement

He and two equally poverty-stricken artist friends started an enclave in which there was no private, personal property. They were the predecessors of the "Wandervogel," a youth movement that advocated sharing and getting away from urban areas into the wild. They each shared what the other had. Whoever had money at the moment was in charge of paying the bills. Schubert, admitted to the immortal pantheon of the great composers, was alone among them a pauper, an outsider and a failure. He lived a short but merry life and died all too soon, at the age of thirty-one.

The best starting strategy at the piano is to start kids with numbers (or a similar, soft approach) and then later read music. Reading music is really quite difficult and unenjoyable for most kids, in the early stages. This leads to a huge level of frustration that must be dealt with by the teacher.

Most kids struggle with the uninteresting pieces of beginning piano, become disillusioned, and finally quit when they realize that Jingle Bells is all they will ever play. If you only read music, your musical diet is limited to whatever your reading skills allow. With most kids, that is a very stark and discouraging diet.

Play Fun Music Without ReadingWhat Piano By Number does is allow the child to have simple, childish fun with the piano, making music, before they start to try reading music. With Piano By Number, even quite difficult pieces, like the Moonlight Sonata or Fur Elise, are made easy for kids to play, and this fun leads to enthusiasm.

Any song can be translated into numbers, making it accessible to every child. It's very difficult to interest a child in an instrument with which they have nothing but difficulty, and most piano teachers ignore this fact as the child fumbles through piece after piece.

Even Simple Songs Are Hard To ReadThe simplest song, presented in conventional notation, can pose a myriad of problems for beginners.

Let's use Mary Had A Little Lamb as an example.

Children will be confused by the "circles" (the notes) and will want to know why some are hollow and some filled in solid black. They will want to know what the "rest" (the little rectangle) at the end of the song means. And we've left out many common notation symbols in the interest of clarity.

The result is a child mired in the minutiae of notation, and that is not even counting the struggle they will have translating those "notes" on the page into corresponding "keys" on the piano.

The Areas Of ConfusionThere are usually three areas of confusion: on the page, on the keys and in the combination of the first two. As soon as the child encounters these intellectual difficulties, they may decide it is too hard for them. Kids are very aware of their capabilities, even if some are more adventurous than others. If a child believes that something is too difficult, the teacher's task becomes infinitely harder.

Below is Mary Had A Little Lamb in number format, with a numbered piano keyboard below:

Mary Had A Little Lamb

| 3 2 1 2 | 3 3 3 * | 2 2 2 * | 3 3 3 * |

| 3 2 1 2 | 3 3 3 3 | 2 2 3 2 | 1 * * * |

[piano]

Numbers Have Less DimensionsNumbers have really only two dimensions, up and down. Even very young children understand this. The multiple dimensions of musical notation are a huge stumbling block, even for older kids. Numbers are immediately transparent to kids, and they start making music right away. Reading music comes a little later.

Having gotten the child to see that music is fun, it is then much easier to introduce more difficult elements, at the child's pace. With great patience, you can slowly unveil the real difficulties of music. The child will follow you if they have had fun. I've never found a kid who didn't respond to this approach.

Parents Need PatienceThis method, entirely successful for the child, requires one thing from parent and teacher: patience. Many kids move beyond numbers in a few months, but other kids cling to it, usually the youngest kids. Don't forget that numbers allow any child to play music far harder than what they can read from musical notation. Thus six year olds are capable of playing the Moonlight Sonata in simplified form, and thousands of other pieces that will interest them far more than the "cardboard" music found in the standard beginner's texts.

Numbers also allow the teacher time to slowly work into reading music, instead of the "cold immersion" used today. Cold immersion does not work for anyone except a very tiny number of prodigies who may quit anyway. I realize this is the opposite of what you've been told, which is that only discipline will work, that reading music must be mastered first. But they are wrong, and the kids are the evidence. Allow kids room to grow at first. The reward comes later.

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https://pianobynumber.com/blogs/readingroom/piano-by-number-for-a-severely-disabled-girl2020-02-18T12:58:00-05:002020-04-12T09:40:43-04:00Piano By Number For A Severely Disabled Girljohn aschenbrenner

I used Piano By Number for a severely disabled girl who could never have played piano without the simplicity of the number method. I’ve taught piano to kids so severely disabled that it would make you weep to see these brave kids try things that people say are impossible. I taught a little girl with one hand.

When her Mom asked me, I could not refuse. I never knew how she lost the hand. But she wanted to play very much. To myself, I thought, “How far can I honestly take this child?” Then I looked at the bright side. She had one hand, and luckily it was the right hand. So we learned every song we could in Piano by Number. She was very bright and easy to work with, and did a year’s worth of work in a few months.

A Very Bright Student

She could play all twelve chords, major and minor, with her right hand, as well as read flats and sharps. Her preference was playing by eye and by ear, a process I encouraged. The way I did this was to use the capabilities of the little electronic keyboard that she had. I saw that it had an “auto-chord” function, where you could create an accompaniment just by playing a single key in the left hand.

It would break your heart to watch this sweet child embrace the idea of playing with the stump of her left hand. But embrace it she did. It led to her becoming an amateur rock’n’roll composer. This was because the keyboard had a rock beat we could not figure how to turn off, so we went with what we had.

She Becomes A Composer

She was a clever little artist, and began composing songs for which she sang and wrote the words. We arranged classical masterpieces for this setup. She played Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and other things you would never think a one-handed nine year-old could possibly play. And she played with a style and zest that almost all two-handed kids lack.

By choosing a “transparent” method like Piano by Number, she was allowed to use her unique talents in her own way, a fun performance that made her proud of using her left hand. Before she started piano, she held the hand slightly behind her, as if she were ashamed of her terrible injury. But as time went by she stopped doing it, leaving her arm out for all to view. I never saw a trace of bitterness or sadness cross her face. I think she was the bravest kid I ever taught.

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https://pianobynumber.com/blogs/readingroom/introduction-to-teach-yourself-piano2020-02-16T14:59:00-05:002020-03-21T11:50:23-04:00Introduction to Teach Yourself Pianojohn aschenbrenner
In the Introduction to Teach Yourself Piano, we find that music is an art that builds each step upon the last. Understand the point of each step. The steps necessary for you to learn how to play piano have been carefully broken down into individual points. Just follow the path between lessons. Once you get going, how much should you play? 5 or 10 minutes a day are sufficient. Research shows that it’s better to play 5 minutes a day than to cram all your playing into 35 minutes on one day a week. If you want to learn how to play piano, use short play periods. Your brain has a better chance of absorbing the information and developing the habits you will need to play.

Continuity Comes From Familiarity

Pleasure in playing music comes from continuity, and continuity comes from familiarity. You need to allow yourself to thoroughly grasp the physical movements involved. To do this you need to absorb each step to the point where it becomes almost automatic. Learning how to play piano involves a lot of repetition, and you need to find a way of making that repetition palatable. Don’t play a song only once, and then say, “Oh, it’s too hard.” Play the song 100 times over ten days and then see what happens. You’ll develop habits with your fingers and eyes, and begin to move faster through the songs.

Notes First, Fingering Second

Don’t worry about which hand or finger you use. Your first task is to get the “number/note” information from the page and make any finger play those numbers. Until you become like a robot at translating the written numbers into piano keys, all other information is irrelevant. Play the numbers until they are virtually memorized and you can play each song without significant stumbling.

Learning Chords Will Help Everything

Music is essentially a matrix constructed entirely of chords. Think of individual piano keys as atoms and chords as molecules made up of several atoms. There are only 12 basic chords: most songs use between 3 and 6 chords. If there were one single tip I could give to adults who want to know how to play piano, it would be, "Learn chords." The little finger of your left hand becomes the leader of the three acrobats trying to find each chord position. Since chords are named by the lowest key in the chord, the little finger of the left hand is the most essential and usually is placed on the first key to be played in most chords.

All Chords Shaped Alike

All chords are shaped alike, in terms of the distance between the fingers. Chords are nothing more than a series of physical templates that are applied to various positions on the piano keyboard. Since the distance between the fingers in any chord is basically the same, you should try to move the hand from one chord to the next without significantly changing the distance between the fingers. If you do this, the fingers of your left hand will always be in roughly the correct position, no matter where on the keyboard you are directed to play a chord. When you see any chord symbol, such as the capital letter C, your first thought should be to immediately direct the little finger of your left hand to the “correct” lowest key of the chord. Take your time. It’s not easy to pick out three keys with your left hand again and again, but with repetition, it becomes easy. Don’t try it once. Try it 100 times and see. Repetition is the cornerstone of how you will learn to play piano.

Tips On Both Hands

Remember the kid’s game where you patted your head with one hand while you circled your stomach with the other? Playing piano with both hands is exactly like that. When you were four years old, you had to do each hand separately to get the feel of the whole thing. One basic rule of pianists is: first play the hands separately so the brain can absorb the information of each hand. With every song make sure you can play each hand separately before you try to combine the two hands. If you have a problem putting the two hands together, play the hands separately for a while and then try again until you can easily combine the two hands. Playing the piano with two hands is almost like an Englishman speaking Portuguese and German at the same time. It is an incredible juggling act and you’ll need to do it many, many times until it feels comfortable.

Right And Left Have Different Jobs

The job descriptions of left hand and right hand are entirely different: Right hand: Play only one key at a time, (the owner’s kid.) Left hand: Play at least three keys at once, constantly (the workers.) Try the songs in three ways: right hand only, left hand only, and both hands. Repeat as many times as you can.

Play The Songs You Like

If one song seems easier or more fun than the others, concentrate on it. If a song becomes tedious, try another. But you must keep playing, a little bit each day. Think of a song as a little machine, with chord parts and melody parts. It’s like a three dimensional emotional puzzle with moving pieces. You have to try the moves from key to key and chord to chord again and again until they feel familiar and smooth. Putting together smaller parts of a song into a larger, whole song, is one of the secrets of how to play piano. Professionals don't necessarily practice an entire piece. They practice the parts and then put it together.

Most Songs Use 3 Or 4 Chords

Don’t forget that there are only a limited number of basic chord combinations and even melodic combinations. The chords C F and G, for instance, are used as the entire basis for millions of songs. Once you learn a set of common moves like C F and G in one song, the next song will be that much easier and immediately familiar.

Memorize Everything

By all means memorize the music. Think of the music book as the “library” where you go to get information that you will utilize elsewhere. Eventually, like an actor with the script of a play, you will enact the play (the song) at the keyboard without reference to the written symbols. An actor in rehearsal may refer to a script but does not look at it except for a quick reference. In the same way, musicians are completely involved in their instruments and only refer to written music for accuracy and convenience, if at all. Music making lies in the relationship between your eyes, your hands and the keyboard. The written music is only one way to convey the content of music, and a tedious one. Memorize as much as you can so the music can enter your poetic subconscious. This is the real reason for repetition.

Sharps And Flats

Sharps and flats (the black keys of the piano) are road signs that tell you to turn away from the white keys to which you have become accustomed. Once you learn the rules, sharps and flats will come to you as automatically as white keys. Music on a most basic level is a language with but two parameters, up and down, right and left. Sharps and flats are graphic symbols which command you to move in a specific direction, up or down, right or left.

Blacks And/Or Whites

Play Middle C and then every white key to the right: that’s one way to move “up” on the piano. Now play Middle C and then every key to your right, including black keys: it’s just another more complex way to move “up” on the piano. The reason for the use of groups of two and three black keys on the keyboard lies in the construction of the human hand, and shows the genius of the keyboard’s inventors.

The Keyboard Fits Your Fingers

Hold your hand with your fingers stretched out in front of you: note that your thumbs are shorter than any of your fingers, including your little finger. Also note that, at the piano, the black keys are shorter than the white keys. Few machines fit human anatomy as well or to such grand purpose. Put your right thumb on Middle C and the index finger on the black key to the right. Rock back and forth between the two keys. White keys are long to accommodate the short thumb. Black keys are short to accommodate the longer fingers. Pianists think in visual terms in order to control the huge number of events (keys) they have to produce. Pianists think as they are playing, “Look here, reach there, black key on top there, here comes the white key thingy.” Any visual, verbal cue you can devise is acceptable if you are to learn how to play piano. There are only twelve basic chords, and the easiest way to remember them is visually: which white and black keys are used? Since twelve chords is not a lot of information, it is within the realm of possibility to categorize them. One cannot overemphasize the importance of familiarity with the twelve basic (major) chords.

Visual Basis Of Chords

Chords can be categorized in sets of three, both visually and in terms of usage: three chords are usually used together as a powerful unit. Twinkle, Twinkle uses only the unit of C F and G chords, and so do countless other songs. Three of the twelve chords have all white keys: C F and G. 3 of the twelve chords have a black key in the middle: A D and E. Three of the twelve chords have a white key in the middle: Ab Db and Eb. That’s a total of three groups of three or nine chords: the rest (the other three out of twelve chords) are “exceptions” to this rule. If nothing else, you should understand that there is a visual order to the construction of chords, and that once you begin using them it will readily become apparent. It all comes down to memorizing a few combinations, six to be exact, of black/white key combinations.

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https://pianobynumber.com/blogs/readingroom/compare-concert-and-child-pianists2020-02-16T09:13:00-05:002020-04-07T09:49:09-04:00Compare Concert and Child Pianistsjohn aschenbrenner
If you compare concert and child pianists, you will find many similarities, even though their skills are wildly different. For a piano virtuoso, there was a set of steps, somewhere, that you followed in order to reach that level. I find it remarkable that as I practice very difficult music, there is a parallel with the way children learn their beginning lessons. First, real pianists get bored with what they are playing many times. Kids are the same, except that their attention span may be measured in minutes, not months.

Persistence VS Variety

So the next time a child looks bored with repeating a passage, do what you would do with yourself. Determine your level for withstanding boredom at that moment, and then move on to a more enjoyable activity. After you persist, you'll get burned out, so seek variety. Come back to a problem when you’re fresh. For example, suppose you are trying to teach fingering to children. You will likely notice a threshold which signals that the going has become too rough, and the child needs a break. Obey the impulse to take a break. After shifting gears and tone, come back very quickly and try again. Quickly move on to yet something else. If you compare concert pianists and child pianists, you will find the process is very similar.

Problem Areas For Kids

There are certain aspects of beginning piano that children find tedious, and more so the younger the child. Here are the problem areas:

Fingering

Reading Music

Rhythm

You may laugh and say, “Well, fingering, reading music and rhythm are all that music is. What exactly do you teach if you don’t teach that?”

Teach Everything Besides Reading Music

But to a child just starting out at the piano, “Jingle Bells” is Jingle Bells, even if played with the wrong fingers, not reading music, and with no rhythm at all. Just to play the notes, at first, is a huge accomplishment, and you should be careful before going further. Having plunked out the notes, in the above hypothetical “Jingle Bells” situation, you might embark on a study of fingering. Let me give you a warning first: gain a foothold on fingering in the abstract before you apply it to a specific song. If you attempt to apply the fingering lesson to Jingle Bells too soon, the child most likely has only enough focus to find the notes. Their brain is most likely not developed enough to worry about what finger to use. If they fail to finger Jingle Bells properly, it's your fault, not theirs. You should have waited and gotten a foothold on fingering elsewhere first. Better to engage in fingering games entirely outside of the song being learned. Here’s one that I use first.

Threesies Fingering And Rhythm Game

Take the child’s first three fingers of the right hand. Place them on any three white keys. Assuming you have selected the key numbered 1 (Middle C) the game could go as follows:

1 2 3, 2 3 4, 3 4 5, 4 5 6, etc.

“Play the three keys in a row.” You will have to actually push their fingers gently at the right time so they get the idea. They will not understand without you physically moving the fingers so that they feel the motion from the inside of their hand. Abstractions are irrelevant to younger children. Play 123, 234, 345,456 567, etc.

What To Expect Of A Six Year Old

What do you expect of a six year old? Think about this next time you are about to get impatient with a child at the piano. Real pianists don’t expect perfection or even comfort for years in a specific piece of music. With children, it is up to you, the teacher. You have to make the steps so easy, and cleverly arranged, that failure is all but impossible. Most of all, you must be aware of which skills are age related, so that you can quickly determine which skill that particular child is ready to learn. Children learn easily when they are good and ready to, on their own terms.

What is soft piano? It is a way of teaching beginning piano that does not involve reading music immediately. It has demonstrated a far higher success rate. Why does "soft piano" even exist? Because the failure rate of "hard piano" (the old school) is 90%. Even a fool realizes that anything that has a 90% failure rate does not work. But conventional teachers decry soft piano as a fake, cheating children out of a musical education.

The Complaints Of The PuristsThey say:

Piano is difficult no matter how you teach it.

Easy piano methods instill bad habits.

Only the old school is acceptable.

Soft piano dilutes music education.

Let’s take those statements and examine them.

Piano Is Difficult No Matter WhatWrong. Any piece of music can be simplified to the point where a beginner can play it. The flaw is that a very complex piece, even if rendered into numbers, may be too complex for the player to understand. The sheet music would be equally if not more incomprehensible. The entire process of learning the piano probably cannot be made easy, if you plan to be a concert pianist. But it is entirely within the realm of reason that the beginning of piano lessons can be made more enjoyable for children.

Easy Piano Methods Instill Bad HabitsI've seen little geniuses who have "good habits." They hate the piano, as they have been forced by repetition to learn a series of showpieces. The habit you need to succeed at the piano is the desire to keep playing. Unless that desire is coming from you, you will quit. Force doesn't really work. Passion does.

Only The Old School Is AcceptableAll that matters is that the child develops a desire to learn the piano. Force won't accomplish this. Nurturing might. Use your head: do you want a robot or an artist? Force works, but only for a little while in the beginning.

Soft Piano Dilutes Music EducationMusic education is so "thick" that we have to dilute it. There's no other way to get the kids to drink it. So if a child gets a 10% solution of music education at first, he might quite like it, but if he got 100% it might be too thick, too complex for the child. The opposite of soft piano is, "Here, drink this thick stuff, it's what I used to drink 60 years ago when I was a kid." That stuff makes kids choke.

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https://pianobynumber.com/blogs/readingroom/why-children-fail-at-piano-lessons2020-02-14T15:21:00-05:002020-03-26T10:09:31-04:00Why Children Fail At Piano Lessonsjohn aschenbrenner
Why children fail at piano lessons is not a mystery. It is almost always the fault of the teacher. A teacher can destroy a kid's will to play in seconds. These teachers will say, "He doesn't practice, he doesn't pay attention." Saying a child doesn't pay attention simply defines what the child is like.

Inattention is part of the definition of childhood. They are in their own world, struggling to get into the adult world. How do you reach these children? Especially, how do you reach them with a skill-intensive art like the piano?

High Expectations Are Poison

First of all, you need to get your expectations as a teacher or parent in order. An art teacher who expects kindergartners to paint detailed frescoes is going to be bitterly disappointed. An art teacher who is wise enough to nurture the child's doodling may get an entirely different result. Similarly, with the piano, you would be wise to examine what makes the child not pay attention.

It All Depends On How You Present The Song

I was once teaching a song to a child, and that child was not paying any attention. Usually, I would let the child move to a song they were interested in, and go with that. But we were playing a song they had requested, so we set to work on it. I instantly noticed that the child could not grasp the musical groups, which were six or eight notes long.

Break The Song Down

I realized that their inattention was due to my failure to break the groups down into small enough parts. We began experimenting with two and three note groups, and this was an instant success. In fact, we then became involved in games using three note cells, or groups of tones. He learned a lot about chords and their similarities on the keyboard. Once the child grasped the idea on their level, they were able to enjoy any games or songs we played.

The lesson here is observation. If you really step back and observe children's piano experience, you will see that they are usually struggling with some small concept that prevents them from understanding the musical idea you are presenting. Try going a step back, and watch their behavior for the "comfort zone." For example, if you are trying to get the child to understand a six-note group, and they are failing at the fourth note, it means that their capacity is three notes. Observe the child and throw your process out. Mold your process to the child and be patient.

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https://pianobynumber.com/blogs/readingroom/the-piano-kid2020-02-13T09:48:00-05:002020-04-11T12:03:38-04:00The Piano Kidjohn aschenbrenner
The Piano Kid was short, maybe three feet tall, and he loved candy. He could play any piano song he set his mind to. He devoured piano music. It was nothing to him. Piano pieces that other kids his age (8) were fretting over were putty in his hands.

Then disaster struck. His Dad got involved. Dad was an Manhattan arbitrage lawyer, a very unpleasant man who was used to getting what he wanted. And Dad decided that his son should be able to read piano music at a high level, even though the kid was only ten and had great difficulty with reading music.

An Unbearable Boor For A Father

"I set my standards very high," he coldly informed me in his $10,000 suit. He had no musical skill or experience of any kind. although he loved classic rock hits. Dad was a tiger parent. He hovered over the lessons, offering helpful threats like, "Sit up straight or no dessert for you."

Or his classic growl, "Pay attention!" When he entered the room, his sons cowered. He lurked in the room next to the lessons, judging every move we made.

Dad Hated Numbers

Finally Dad had enough of my "soft piano" approach. "I'm sending him to the Conservatory," he said bluntly. I won't say which one. The boy's afternoons of finding and playing songs came to an end.

The End

I still taught many other kids in the neighborhood, and would see him in his yard playing ball sometimes. Finally two years later, we crossed paths on the way to my car, so I asked, "Still playing piano?" He hung his head. "No, I quit. They made it so boring."

I asked, "Don't you want to just play a song once in a while?" He shuffled. "I don't want to play any more." He shuffled back to the house of doom.

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https://pianobynumber.com/blogs/readingroom/an-effective-strategy-for-kids-reading-music2020-02-12T14:57:00-05:002020-04-10T11:23:53-04:00An Effective Strategy for Kids Reading Musicjohn aschenbrenner
You'll need an effective strategy for kids reading music if you are to succeed with younger children. “Reading music” is a very large, vague term. There are levels of reading music. Liszt, the famed romantic star of the piano, was able to read instantly even the handwritten chicken-scratchings of young composers such as in the famous story with Grieg.

That’s the highest level of pianistic expertise, sought and usually attained by modern professional classical musicians. At the opposite end of the scale is the average adult amateur, with whatever music reading skills they can muster from youth, which are often not well-remembered.

Each Hand Has A Different Graphic Language

Children, too, have levels. Some learn right hand (treble clef) up to a certain level of complexity. Some also learn the left hand language (bass clef) but rarely with the assurance of the right hand. Be aware that reading music often involves “speaking” (playing) two different musical languages; right hand (treble clef) and left hand (bass clef.)

Think of it as speaking both Romanian and French at the same time. Both are equally unfamiliar. This will give you an idea of how kids feel when trying to read music. To play and read even one clef (hand) well is an accomplishment, but a pianist must conquer both simultaneously.

Steps To Reading Right Hand

Here are the steps a child must take to learn to read simple music in the treble clef (the right hand.) Some steps involve finding elements on the page, and others involve finding keys on the piano.

Finding Middle C

Familiarize yourself with and locate Middle C. It is the only note with the “little line.” (See the diagram.) Be aware that there are five horizontal lines. Look at notes (the circles) on a page. There are only three locations: Middle C, on a space or on a line. Keep drilling visually the placement of notes, as in the drawing. The child must know the answer EVERY time before proceeding. The child is trying to find three things. Middle C, a note on a space, or a note on a line.

Put On The Reading Music Stickers

The red sticker is Middle C

Now put the stickers on your keyboard, as in the diagram. The red sticker represents Middle C. Play games finding Middle C on the page (the “little line.”) Review the skill of finding Middle C on both the piano and the page. This is crucial for success with reading music. Don’t worry if it takes four months or longer, depending on the age of the child. This skill must be in place before proceeding. Older kids learn it in a few minutes.

Offer the additional information that Middle C is the white key to the left of the group of two white keys. Play a game finding all the C’s on the piano. You point to a group of two black keys, and the child must find the adjacent white key to the left. After that is mastered, go back to finding Middle C, that is, distinguishing Middle C from all other C’s.

Finding Middle C And Lines And Spaces

5 blue stickers: the 5 lines of the staff

Now play a game with the drawing in which the child must distinguish between Middle C, denoted by the red sticker, and all the other lines, denoted by the 5 blue stickers. Play a key with a blue sticker, and ask, “Is this on a line or a space?” The answer must be “It’s on a line.”

Play Middle C, the key with the red sticker. Ask if it’s on a line or a space. It’s a trick question. Middle C is on it’s “own line,” the “little lines.” Next use the drawing with the stickers (your keyboard) and play all the keys that have no sticker at all. These are “spaces.” If a note is on these spaces, we say it is “on a space.”

Don't Skip Preparatory Steps

These steps will prepare your child for reading music. If you attempt to read music without understanding these skills and ideas, you will be confused from the first moment. If these skills are in hand, it will not be hard to move from one note on a line to the next on a space.

The general strategy is to learn the first five notes above Middle C until they are utterly familiar. Don’t stray into other hand positions until the C position with the right hand is solidly learned. That’s why it’s important to have other things to learn while the weeks pass and the above ideas sink in.

Lastly, do not make the mistake of introducing fingering at this time. It will greatly confuse younger children. Find the notes on the page, then find them on the piano. No note naming, no fingering. Many things are possible once the idea of “note finding” is secure in their minds.

Note finding is a game, with various levels. Play all the levels (the steps above, or I Can Read Music) before gingerly testing the waters with real music. You will succeed if you are patient. Make sure the child has control of the underlying concepts.

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https://pianobynumber.com/blogs/readingroom/you-say-read-i-say-play2020-02-12T09:24:00-05:002020-04-10T11:07:24-04:00You Say Read, I Say Playjohn aschenbrenner
"You say read, I say play." That is the Piano By Number method compared to all other piano methods. They say, read music. I say, play the piano. It's really a question of what order you do it in. Almost all piano teachers start by teaching kids the rudiments of reading sheet music. In fact, that is all they do.

This is foolish, and here's why: Remember when your child was very young, pre-reading? You read to your child. You filled your child with the wonder of stories, characters and imagination whose source was books, the printed page, and language.

First You Taught The Alphabet

Your next step was to introduce the letters of the alphabet to the child. You were wise enough to let the child feel comfortable with their mastery of the letters before you moved on to forming words and sentences. But in conventional piano lessons, the learning process is foolishly reversed.

Conventional Piano Lessons Ignore Child Psychology

Conventional lessons start by reading music right away. No magic of music, no fun, no easy comprehension of something outside yourself, no bedtime stories, no childish delight. Instead, they must always be tied to the page. Play the notes on the page exactly as you are told. Kids are never shown why to play piano, only how.

The result? Imagine you had taught your child reading this way, read first, play later: Hypothetically, when your child asked for a fun story, you instead made them work on their letters. Of course they need to learn letters, but when? No stories until you can read!

Get On The Child's Level

When it was time for Curious George, you instead insisted on a discussion of sentence structure. And why not throw in a two hour Cambridge-level lecture on the history of Victorian children's literature, as well? You delayed any sense of reward in literature, and traded it for for forcing technical knowledge down their throats.

Finally, after years of effort, it came time for the child to read their story by themselves. The child could only read single syllable words, and thus the story was necessarily simplistic and dull. Now you have a child who can read music, but hates hates being at the piano because the music is moronic.

What's The Point If You Hate Piano?

I submit that a child taught in this way may end up in fact reading music. But they have lost the mutual, human act of storytelling. That's the entire point of literature to a child. It is the same with music. You have to make music, not just read it. This is why the first thing I do in a kid's piano lesson is have them make music.

I don't care if it is Chopsticks or Scooby Doo played with their backwards thumbs. Until a child has had the experience of making music, happily, it is pointless to go further. The answer is to first show the child that we play piano to have fun with music.

No Fun, No Music

Conventional piano teachers reverse this process. They assume that if the teacher shows the child how to read music, the child will somehow absorb the magic of music making. This process also ignores the fact that it will take decades for the child to read music well enough to play an interesting piece of music. Interesting music can be played by ear or other methods while the child is slowly developing the skills of reading music.

The person who loses in this foolish process is your child. The statistics bear this out: 9 out of 10 kids taught piano in the conventional way give up within a year.

If you're looking for books for a child five, six, or seven years old, a good suggestion is Piano Is Easy. This book has songs on the white keys only, an accepted practice in beginning lessons that makes it easier for young kids. Piano Is Easy has lyrics and pictures, and is intended for younger kids. 63 songs on 146 pages, illustrated with 56 minute DVD from Teach Yourself Piano, plus a Play Along Songs C. This is a good choice for five, six or seven year olds. Includes stickers and free USA shipping.

ABC Song, Alouette, Amazing Grace, Animal Fair, A Tisket a Tasket, Aura Lee, Ba Ba Black Sheep, Barcarolle, Bicycle Built for Two, Brahms’ Lullaby, Camptown Races, Can Can, Chopsticks, Clementine, Dora the Explorer, Down by the Station, Down in the Valley, Do You Know the Muffin Man? Draydl Song, Eensy Weensy Spider, Fantasie Impromptu (Chopin), Firework, Flintstones, Frere Jacques, Go Tell It on the Mountain, Happy Birthday, Hey, Diddle, Diddle, Home, Sweet Home, How Much is That Doggie in the Window, I’m a Little Teapot, If You're Happy and You Know It, I Gave My Love a Cherry, Indiana Jones,In the Gloaming, It’s Raining, It’s Pouring, Jingle Bells, Lazy Mary, Let It Go,Listen to the Mockingbird, London Bridge, Lonesome Valley, Long, Long Ago,Mary Had a Little Lamb, Mickey Mouse Club, Muppets, On Top of Spaghetti,Piano Man, Pop Goes the Weasel, Red River Valley, Scooby Doo, Skater's Waltz,Spongebob, Star Wars, Swing Low Sweet Chariot, Take Me out to the Ballgame,The Bear Went over the Mountain, There's a Hole in the Bucket, This Train,Wallace and Gromit, Waltzing Matilda, Wheels on the Bus, Wiggles,You Are My Sunshine

8 Years Old, 9 Years Old, 10 Years Old

If you're looking for books for a child eight, nine or ten years old, a good suggestion is the Big Book of Songs, which has songs on both the black and white keys. It also includes chord symbols, groups of three keys you play with your left hand. Simpler books like Piano Is Easy have lyrics and pictures. It is intended for younger kids, The Big Book has no lyrics or pictures, just more and more songs. Older kids don't seem to need the pictures and lyrics, and just want to play as many songs as they can.

134 songs on 150 pages, illustrated with 56 minute DVD from Teach Yourself Piano, the Big Book is a good choice for eight, nine and ten year olds. Includes stickers and free USA shipping.

Down by the Riverside, Down in the Valley, Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes, Drunken Sailor, The Entertainer, Fantasie Impromptu, Farmer in the Dell, First Noel, Flow Gently Sweet Afton, For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow, Frere Jacques, Funiculi Funicula, Fur Elise, Go In and Out the Window, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, God Save the Queen, Good King Wenceslas, Grandfather’s Clock, Green Grow the Lilacs, Hail to the Chief, Happy Farmer,

Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Hatikvah, Hava Nagilah, He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands, Hearts and Flowers, Home Sweet Home, Home on the Range, Hush Little Baby, I Gave My Love A Cherry, I Love You Truly, In the Gloaming, It Came Upon A Midnight Clear, Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair, Joy to the World, Kumbayah, La Cucaracha, La Donna E Mobile, La Paloma, Largo by Dvorak, Lavender’s Blue, Listen to the Mocking Bird, Little Buttercup, Lo How A Rose E’er Blooming, Loch Lomond, Lonesome Valley, March Slav,

Merry Widow Waltz, Michael Rowed the Boat Ashore, Mulberry Bush, My Bonnie, My Old Kentucky Home, My Wild Irish Rose, Nearer My God to Thee, O Christmas Tree, O Come All Ye Faithful, O Holy Night, O Little Town of Bethlehem, Oh Dear What Can the Matter Be, Oh Susanna, Oh Them Golden Slippers, Old Folks at Home, Old King Cole, Old MacDonald Had A Farm, Onward Christian Soldiers, Over the River and Through the Woods,

DOWNLOAD CUSTOMERS: Many of our books include Audio tracks and access to our Play Along Songs VIMEO Audio site as well as the VIMEO 56 minute Video from Teach Yourself Piano. Your purchase of a download gives you access to our VIMEO Audio and Video sites where you can play along with our PLAY ALONG SONGS and view our DVD.

PRINTED BOOK CUSTOMERS: If you purchase a printed book, you also receive access to our VIMEO Audio and Video sites. In addition, printed book customers receive a CD and/or DVD with their order free!